OCLA puts things in perspective: Successful industry convention for the optics community in the SGBA

At the height of spring in the St.GallenBodenseeArea (SGBA), international industry leaders and experts convened in the region for the fifth edition of the annual conference for the local optics community.

Organized by research and innovation center RhySearch, and co-programmed by Swissphotonics, the European Optical Society as well as the NTB Interstate University of Technology Buchs, the international symposium for „Optical Coatings for Laser Applications“ (OCLA) was as usual ready to stand out as the leading professional industry event in Buchs, in the SGBA’s Rhine valley.

For the entire day of April 11^th, scientists and engineers jumped at the opportunity to learn the latest news and achievements in the areas of laser optics, optical high-end-coatings, thin film depositions and optical characterization. A perfect mix of science, applied research and development in the field of coatings for laser applications once again turned out to be the winning formula. Speakers such as Lars Jensen, Director of Optical Coating at the “Laser-Zentrum Hannover LZH”, with his paper about atomic layer depositions (ALD coatings) in laser applications, or Layertec’s Sebastian Riese lecturing on the specification of coatings and optical components, left the audience of 120 perfectly satisfied.

The OCLA symposium is particularly important and popular with optics experts, because „in Buchs you’ll always find the very people who are advancing the research and knowledge about coatings and photonic technology“, said Oliver Heckl from the University of Vienna – who chose to postpone a competing invitation from overseas just to be able to present at OCLA. In addition, the optics experts’ symposium in the SGBA is ideally complemented by an accompanying trade exhibition organized by sponsors and important local players in the SGBA’s optics sector – making OCLA also a strong ambassador for the power and the quality of the industry’s achievements in Eastern Switzerland.

It doesn’t come as a great surprise then, that many in the optics sector are already eyeing the sixth edition of OCLA in April 2020 and look forward to OCLA’s „Call for Presentations and Posters“, which will be issued by the end of 2019.

If you can’t wait until then, you’ll find all things interesting and worth knowing about OCLA right here: www.rhysearch.ch/ocla